Kathy from Valrico, Florida, USA

Hi Kathy,
Glad to hear that you are slowly recovering from your trip. I'm so happy that you got to enjoy the special tiger's visit as an additional birthday treat. The tiger reserve was featured on Good Morning America yesterday. The show stated that there is some controversy about the reserve simply being a means to money making or really doing the right thing for the tigers.....The owner seemed very open and felt he was making a true effort to return the cubs to the wild, as I think you had mentioned. It had to be an enjoyable experience.
Thanks for the holiday
wishes and I extend mine to you and Rob..
May happiness continue to find you and yours in the New Year, aided by good health, peace, and the love and joy of family and friends.
I am up and down emotionally, but memories, the outpouring of love and support from family and friends helps a lot. I will be in Orlando from the 2oth to the 27th, so I'm looking forward to sharing some of that warm air for awhile.I'm certainly looking forward to it...Its going to be a family affair, with kids, grands and other extended family coming and going during the week. We also plan to tour Cape Canaveral...something else that I look forward to doing...so it ,while different from past holidays, should be a good one.

Hi Kathy, welcome home. I'll catch up with your photos when we get back! Got your Flickr mail, Thanks. Have a wonderful Christmas and a fabulous !!

Thanks for the Chrissy tips.
I will never look at a buffet table in the same way again!

Hello Kathy, and my very best wishes for a wonderful Xmas and holiday season!! It was lovely of you to visit my page!
Sounds as it you had a wonderful trip, although the delay would have been annoying. Love your tiger shot, though he looks quite well fed!
Yes, I would have thought your memory wonderful, if you hadn't given the game away. Miles is well considering. He still has some headaches, and hefty mood swings, but all in all was very lucky. He and Sharmaine are living up in Singleton (about 4 hours north west)at the moment where he has a job in the mines. They do not have any children yet, but his sister Abbie is pregnant with her second due early June.
Our three are all well, but none of them even look like producing grandies yet. We are having a 'stay at home' Xmas this year. Our daughter, Bethany arrived down from Cairns last evening, and will be here until Boxing Day, so it will be the first Xmas with all of them for a while.

Fond festive felicitations to you and yours, and will catch you next year!!

Hi Kathy, thank you for your good wishes. My brother (the woodwork one) visited Angkor Wat in the Sixties while he was working in Bangkok and took a bunch of slide photos. I have just recently processed them for him. His impression is that many of the lovely statues have been vandalised in recent years by people selling to the collectors and he will now be able to compare his photos with modern photos of the place to see what damage has been done It looks like being an interesting project.
I will be interested to see any photos you and Rob might have taken during your travels.
May I take this opportunity to wish you and your family a joyous Christmas and a bright and healthy New Year.

Hi Kathy! Oh my! That tiger photo still takes my breath away!
I've stopped by to wish you and Rob a

and much happiness in the coming year

Kathy, may the Christmas spirit bless you and your family and the New Year be filled with joy and prosperity! Merry Christmas!

ps: Fantastic photo with the tiger!! Unbelievable that you were able to get that close to a tiger!

Hello Kathy and Rob. Your pictures look wonderful. What an experience to remember for your birthday Kathy and treasured memories. Wishing you a Happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year.xx

Wishing you all the very best for the Festive Season

OOh Kathy, you two were and still are a lovely couple!

Kathy and Rob, best wishes for the Festive Season and may 2009 be happy, healthy and peaceful.

Hi Kathy




Best wishes for the festive season to you, Rob and your family - I hope that 2009 brings all that you desire....

On Christmas morning, gather around the with your family and friends, with cups of coffee liberally laced with , and make sure everybody knows you them and wish them joy. May you and yours have the best of holiday seasons.

Hi Kathy, best wishes for a very Merry Christmas and a safe, healthy & happy 2009

Hi Kathy and Rob. I just wanted to stop by and send my best wishes to you and to all those you care for. Enjoy the festive season, and may today and all future days bring you good health, happiness and peace. Cheers!

Dear Kathy and Rob...
Stopping in with Holiday greetings to you! Wishing you a Christmas full of love and joy ...and blessings throughout the new year!

Absolutely had to drop in with a very large Christmas hug for you! Wishing you and those you love the very best Christmas and much good health, happiness and joy in the coming year! Enjoy this special season, my friend!

Thanks for the b'day message.
And a big wish for your Christmas. and just in case I dont check in before ...

MERRY CHRISTMAS, Kathy, to you, Rob, and your loved ones!

Hi Kathy. Your trip sounds wonderful! Travel is exhausting, but so rewarding. My husband and I just got back yesterday from a trip to Antarctica. Our daughter picked us up at the airport in San Francisco and we'll spend Christmas with our grandchildren before completing the final leg of our trip and returning home.

Hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas!

Kathy, thanks for stopping by my page with birthday greetings. I had a terrific day filled with family and fun. I must admit, however, that I'm ready to get back to normal - whatever that is. It seems odd to think that we just got back from Antarctica exactly one week ago. Since that we've had Christmas and my birthday. What a whirlwind. Our trip was fabulous. Antarctica was our 7th continent, which made it even more special. Hopefully I'll get some pictures posted before too long.

I hope 2009 is a terrific year for you and your loved ones.

Wishing you a great new year!

Hi Kathy, Just got back to Jupiter from the Keys last night. guess what??? We saw a manatee in the wild at Seven Mile Bridge ... it was amazing!! It was great to see you and Rob again. I loved your tiger temple pics ... Hope to see you in Africa LOL (I will send a seperate email about our travels :) )

Kathy, I really enjoyed your 2008 youtube, thanks for sharing that was hilarious! Also enjoyed your Tiger photo..WOW! that is amazing and awesome!

I hope your travels go well now..
take care,
Marylinn

Thank you Kathy, I did enjoy Uncle Jay's 2008 - it was hilarious! Enjoy your trip/holiday.

Hello Kathy and Rob - a very belated Happy New Year to you both.

Thank you for your good wishes and I'm sorry it's taken me so long to extend my best wishes to you but things were very hectic over the Festive Season with family staying with me.
I had a wongerful Christmas and had all seven of my grandchildren together for the first time and Bailey seemed to enjoy his first Christmas with all his cousins around him.
I know you've both gone on a trip so hope you have a lovely time.
Take care and best wishes for 2009!
Anne xx

Hi, Kathy!

Glad you like the moon pictures. I took them about 5:45-6 pm last night. The moonrise was at 5:19, but there was haze on the horizon, so it took a few minutes for the moon to clear the haze. The pink sky was caused by the sunset which occurred about 5:45! Very pretty sky!

Rayray is apparently doing all right but is still not home. He's staying with a friend who can look after him. I don't know if you heard the whole story, but after being hospitalized with a ruptured appendix, he later got a staph infection (while he was still in the hospital), so that's why it's taking so long for him to recover.

Enjoy your family time! I'm sure Ebony is enjoying her visit with her "cousin"!!!

Hi Kathy. Thanks for the birthday wishes. You're becoming a real jet setter lately! I hope you're enjoying the big change in temperatures. I could do with some of that cold weather!

Hi Kathy!

Jaz and I have indeed been exploring Florida- to the point I have not had time to cull through the hundreds of photos I have taken this trip and post all the pics I find to be exceptional!

I have only posted two pics from this trip, and they are of the Limpkin (wading bird, shown on 'my page' as 'most recent'), and a big alligator that we saw on the Loxahatchee last Monday. I'll tell you something about that alligator photo: I took it with my free hand resting on a log, where I did not see a three-foot long water snake sitting, just inches away. YIKES!

The other photos of the Loxahatchee were posted some time ago. The river is only a few minutes ride from my home and I have canoed it five times now. All of the photos in my gallery are displayed in the order they were posted. Click on "Most Recent" (currently the limpkin) to see my most recent post, and then click 'previous photo' for any other new photos, and continue on clicking 'previous' to see the rest of the gallery, I think there must be 250 photos there.

I just bought a new camera with much quicker shutter and lots more pixels, and the photo quality is MUCH improved, so I will soon post some of them.

As far as my beer can collection is concerned, you were correct: the cans are displayed in alphabetical order. I have kept them in that order since I started collecting- way back in 1970. At times, I do have to move very many cans to place a new can in its proper alphabetical position. But I use an old librarian's trick to minimize the movements: the collection is kept on shelving which has more capacity than I have cans and I leave spaces in it, roughly 10 cans apart, to accept new entries. Occasionally, I have to add shelves; which I did shortly after the photo in my gallery was posted. In the gallery-posted photo, there were only a handful of spaces remaining. When I moved over 350 cans one day to put one new can in, I built more shelves

Hi Kathy. I saw your post on 'The Bookseller of Kabul'. I have read it and found it to be very sobering indeed. On the one hand you have the bookseller 'Rais' (I think that is his real name but I'm not sure) secreting a huge amount of books on Afghanistan’s culture and history into attics of friends etc. and being imprisoned/punished, on several occasions, for doing so and yet he is firmly ensconced in the Islamic faith in so many ways. The brutal treatment of the women in his home life is vividly portrayed and it is stark look into a culture divided by modernism and tradition I feel. It left me feeling appalled that these women can have no 'voice'.

Sounds more like a book review...sorry. Hope you and Rob are well. Take care xxx

Hi Kathy.
Belated wished for a good year, which you seem to start very well traveling to the Mayan Tour.
I envy you for your meeting with Jane and Jaime tomorrow. Do not miss a good Chabliss with the lobster. (Not for the driver.
Enjoy your day
Tulio.

Sorry Kathy. You are not the Kathy taking the Maya Tour. I am sufering from what Marylin calls CRS. You are going only to Fernandina. How long do you have to drive?

Hi Kathy - I know you and Rob are away at the moment and I know I’m late doing this but just calling in to thank you for the wonderful birthday greetings. I did indeed have a lovely day, made better by being able to spend it with the whole family. I feel happier than I have in years and I thank you and all my other Sudoku friends for your friendship and support. I love this site.
I keep meaning to tell you that I remember that Tiger Temple in Thailand featuring in one of the earlier series of Amazing Race. I was fascinated by it then and am more so now that I've heard your experiences there. Thanks.

Oh, dear. My husband just hit a tire on the road a week ago. Actually it was a complete retread band and with the snow and driving conditions he couldn't do anything but hit it straight on. It may have just come off the semi ahead of him. It was just suddenly there in the dim morning light. Close to $900 worth of damage to the front and underside, but our deductible's $1000, so no help there.
The next day the weather was really bad with blowing snow and I got my daughter's car stuck in the snowbank along our driveway. There was so much ice on the underside and packed in the wheel wells that the tires were pretty much encased in ice and I could hardly steer to get out of the mess. I broke a shaft in the power steering pump = $300.
I had to spend the morning in the shop instead of going to an event I was supposed to be hosting in a nearby town -- and I had spent hours last week and stayed up almost the whole night before getting ready for it.
Oh, well. At least we're all safe. Wow. I'm glad for Jane, too.
I hear that trash on Florida highways accounts for a larger percentage of serious accidents.

Hi Kathy, I'm glad you and Rob finally made it home safely. What a terrible shock for you both but I'm very glad to hear Rob managed to keep the car on the road and upright.
Hugs to you both and a big pat for Ebony from me.
Vicki

Kathy, Sorry you had to scroll so many pages to find the Heidi Report. I did put a link to the SA7 page, I did not think to also put the page number. I will do that if I hear from Heidi again. Hopefully next we hear is when she can post herself again, with her power back! They were hopeful for power by tomorrow. I am keeping my fingers crossed for her.

Yep, SA7 is a busy place, but has actually been slower in the last few days with so many of the Aussies having such hot and humid weather, or flooding. Maybe the weather emergencies will settle down soon.

Just stopping in to wish you a Happy Valentine's Day!
Hugs!

Hi Kathy. for the wishes. Sounds like you had a horrible driving experience! (I haven't had time to catch up on the reading - but saw mention of one up above!) I looked at a few more of your photos and will eventually get to see them all!

Kathy, Thank You so much for your kinds words. I know there are many places in this world that are special but as the Mayor of Murrindindi Shire said (don't you love that name?) in her speech at the Ceremony ".... we lost many of our loved ones, our history, our animals, our landscape ..." The townships and surrounding areas that are now just ashes were some of our most majestic.
It is very generous of you to forego the ll Divo concert but maybe you should still go and just do without a pre show drink as your donation.
The Victorian Government has handed over the collection and distribution of donations to the Red Cross and an Independent Advisory Panel and process for distribution of appeal funds has been set up. for more information see .. http://www.redcross.org.au/vic/news_mediareleases_victorian-bushfires-assistance-120209.htm

You can make a secure donation on line by clicking on the link on this web page. The Red Cross are not charging an administration fee and I am confident that your donation will be used for something much needed.
http://www.redcross.org.au/default.asp

I will write a seperate email to you with pics included. Thank You my friend

My dear Kathy, include Vici, too. I got mine from my cousin and fell in love with it! Couldn't resist the Ahhh moment! Be safe and try if you can to keep Rob safe and behaving! It's bad enough to have the "Bad Gringo" reputation, but the "Goofy American" as well? Ooops don't let Rob see this! Give him an extra hug and kiss from me!